Em Sex 31 Mar 2006 01:24, Sudev Barar escreveu:
> On 30/03/06, Gentgeen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > On Thu, 30 Mar 2006 11:46:28 +0100
>
> IMHO the thread till now ignores the issue of costs vs sale prices. I
> was trying to do an bulk import pricing from a Taiwanese supplier for
> thin clients to India. One of the major issue is volumes...higher
> volumes will push prices down. That particular deal did not go through
> but even for standard PC's there are bargains to be had for volumes.
> If the "Brands" perceive significant demand you can bet competition
> would force the price war for keeping "Market share".
>
> Of course the real costs are not hardware costs but the time costs of
> setting up network and monitoring / administering it. PLUS how do you
> put a cost advantage of "follow me" desktop with freedom to log in
> from any terminal and getting your home directory? PLUS-PLUS One
> server upgrade and all are running at "latest-greatest" speeds and
> processing power!
As written above, you have to see the whole picture, not the cost of
the
terminal itself.
To demonstrate this, let me list what the advantages of using terminals
are,
in my opinion (predating some comments already issued):
1. - Incredibly low maintenance.
No longer you have to maintain machines with their own OS,
programs etc.
Anyone responsible for a network with >500 computers knows that
very well
how problematic it can be.
2. - High availbility.
If a terminal breaks, just replace it with another. Case solved.
When a PC breaks, the user has no access to his/her
applications and data
while the PC is being fixed. There's time to fix it, there's the user's data
you may have to care about (users simply are unable to assimilate the concept
of 'backup').
3. - Data safety
You can invest more in a server, using RAID, good quality HDs,
controlled
environment temperature etc. Much better than storing your data in a single
HD, inside an overheated el-cheapo metal case.
4. - Little (if any) hardware/software upgrade required to the
terminals.
The ones who were involved in a massive upgrade cycle know very
well the
hellish experience it is.
With terminals, you upgrade the server instead.
Also, since the terminals' hardware upgrade is virtually
unnecessary, you
may invest in better accessories for the user which normally wouldn't find
their way because of cost (let's say, a big and great video monitor, or an
extremely comfortable mouse), happier users = better productivity. -- Even by
doing such improvements, you can save money still.
5. - Better user experience
You can handcraft the server configuration the most perfect way
and it will
reflect to the users instataneously.
6. - True viability of recycled old hardware
What would one do with an old P166MMX ? Perhaps a printer
server... But not
much more than that as a standalone machine.
I've got P100s (those based on a poor [EMAIL PROTECTED] server)
humiliating standalone
1GHz machines in terms of performance.
This not only saves money, but also keeps a machine from
becoming waste to
deal with (well, I do care about it).
So, from my experience, even if a terminal costs more than a white-box
computer (but it doesn't, because any white-box can be a terminal itself), it
actually costs much less considering the situation as a whole (the so-called
TCO).
.dan
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